A SALB Volunteer Appreciation Award ceremony was held on the 31 August 2016 at the premises of the South African Library for the Blind, Grahamstown.

The event was planned by the Audio Production section of SALB to say thanks and to hand over awards to all the volunteers who so unselfishly volunteered their time and services to the library throughout the years.

Introductions

The proceedings started promptly at 10 o’clock with an Introduction by Ms. P. Mahanjana. Ms. Mahanjana, who is the Senior Manager Production Services here at SALB, also introduced the director of the library; the SALB management team as well as the Audio production team to the guests and volunteers.

Ms. Pumla Mahanjana – SALB Senior Manager: Production and Standards

Welcoming and Opening

The SALB director, Mr. Francois Hendrikz, did the welcoming and opening, followed by a brief emphasises of the important contribution made by our valuable volunteer narrators in developing our book collections.

Mr. Hendrikz special mentioned and acknowledged the fact that one specific volunteer narrator, Mr. Vink Roux, narrated over than 400 audio books for the library. Mr. Roux, who has stopped narration for SALB due to ill health, was not present at the event. About 2 weeks prior to the event, the director, together with 2 other SALB staff members, went to visit Mr. Roux, to acknowledge and to hand over an award for his valuable efforts.

Mr. Hendrikz also mentioned the fact that one of the Library of Congress narrator, who started narrating for the Library of Congress during the seventies, has narrated more than 1000 books. Mr. Hendrikz joked that this must be the set yardstick for our narrators. Mr. Hendrikz was of the view that we can also do it here at SALB.

Mr. Francois Hendrikz: Director SALB

Handing over of Awards

The time that everyone has been waiting for finally arrived. Audio Production Supervisors: Mr. Thembile Gxekwa together with Ms. Charlene Prince, called up the names of the recipients, while Audio Production Manager: Mr Melton Kivitts, gave a brief narrative description of when the recipient started narrating books for SALB as well as how many books he/ she narrated so far.

Exhibition/demonstration

The award ceremony followed by a brief hands on demonstration/exhibition by the Audio and Braille Sections on how the valuable work done by the audio and Braille volunteers, falls into the bigger picture of the services rendered by SALB to its members.

Audio and Braille exhibition

Finger lunch and closing

The well planned event, ended with a finger lunch followed by the closing and thanks note done by Ms. Pumla Mahanjana.